After a public hearing Friday, University officials pushed forward with a College of Medicine proposal. Senate Executive Committee members will review the general idea of the college and its goals at the Urbana-Champaign Faculty Senate meeting on Monday, Sept. 22.

If approved, subcommittees will create three separate documents to be reviewed, including curriculum, governance and budget plans.

On Friday, Sept. 12, professors and students attended a public hearing, where the proposal was discussed in-depth.

Gay Miller, Educational Policy Committee chair, reported a positive discussion to the senate, in which she said people who attended Friday’s meeting found the proposal exciting.

Miller received several letters from the public following the hearing in support of the proposed college.

“Not only will an engineering-oriented medical college be able to fulfill this mantra as a research institution, but it will also be an ideal place for aspiring physician-scientists, like myself, to attend for a unique education,” Aashay Patel, student in Engineering, wrote to Miller.

Angus Rockett, professor in the department of materials science and engineering, also wrote to Miller, agreeing that a College of Medicine would be a valuable asset to the University. He stated that the program would work well with bio-related engineering programs throughout the College of Engineering.

“It would work well with the talents in town associated with the College of Veterinary Medicine, where many ground-breaking therapies are developed in animals that could connect well with potential to bring these therapies to human medicine, and with the very large hospitals in town,” Rockett said.